Jim Angel

We were on the road to recovery before these weekend rains.

Time to break out the champagne.

We don't have that this year to fall back on.

We don't have large bodies of water to moderate the temperatures.

The first three weeks were bitterly cold, but the last week was pretty darn warm.

Everyone's first concern is always the grass or their crops, but trees can suffer too.

Water heats up much more slowly than land surfaces, so in the summer the water is acting to cool the surrounding land surface. In the winter, the opposite happens. In winter the water remains warmer than the surrounding land.

Historically, a La Nina that forms in spring has a tendency for most of Illinois to be dry.

We've had some recovery but nothing to breathe a sigh of relief over.

It's one of those things that's not 100 percent of one or the other.

While good rains in August and September have alleviated drought conditions in portions of central and southern Illinois, the most severely affected area in northern Illinois remains stubbornly dry.

If I had a thousand major shareholders that I know would be selling stock because of portfolio diversification, I would rather do a secondary offering than have them sell in dribs and drabs. It makes a lot of sense to do it in one fell swoop.

That's just a little over an inch above normal. It's not spectacular but it's enough to make a difference here.